Michael C. Cordell's humorous look at his new life in suburbia. After he and his wife bought a fifty year old house in the beautiful area of Montrose, California set in the foothills of the Verdugo mountain range, he sets about chronicling their remodeling efforts while enjoying the flora and fauna that are taking over their new abode.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

This is what the Station fire in La Canada Flintridge looks like to those traveling north on the 110 Freeway just south of downtown Los Angeles. The fire has consumed 7,000 acres thus far and is 0% contained as of this writing.

Friday, August 28, 2009

La Canada Flintridge, a mere stone's throw from us if you can heave stones three or so miles, has had an unwelcomed visitor in their backyard for the past few days. A brush fire started on Wednesday and has developed into an official conflagration. The side effects of this ongoing inferno, at least to us folks here in our neck of the glen, has been smoke and ash. On top of that, we've had a couple days of triple digit temperatures, forcing us to say inside or occasionally take refuge in the cool embrace of our pool. To pile on more kindling, as it were, our air conditioning system decided to take a siesta, thanks to its overheated compressor. Who knew that running the A/C night and day for two days would cause such havoc? Something tells me there's more behind the scenes, but I'm too damn hot to argue with the technician about it right now.

So, the mood in the Villa the moment: hot and irritated. My darling spouse has minor surgery in the morning as well, so she's not going to enjoy convalescing in tropical temperatures. Who can blame her? I'm getting overheated just writing this short blog post.

I'll leave you with a few fun photos from the Villa. Please send rain. Thanks.

Michael C. Cordell

Michael C. Cordell is an author and screenwriter living in Los Angeles. Among his credits, Michael has written several short stories, essays, poems and screenplays as well as a number of articles relating to technology's use in business environments.

A collection of Michael's short works,"In The Foothills," was published in July 2008 by Foothills Villa Publishing and can be found on Amazon.com, BN.com and other fine booksellers' websites.